The present invention relates to a method of, and an apparatus for, providing nail art by automatically drawing an object, such as a picture, on a nail surface.
Hitherto, the nail art has been a kind of art where an expert draws a nail art object, such as a picture, on a human nail surface, using manicure. It has been difficult for an amateur who is not a skilled expert, to draw a desired object, such as a picture, on a nail surface, using manicure. Even to a skilled person, it has been not easy to draw a nail art object, such as a nail art picture, on the nail of his/her right hand fingers in case of right-handed, or on the nail of his/her left hand fingers in case of left-handed.
A method and apparatus are described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (Kokai) H6-70810 (1994), where an object, such as a nail art picture, is printed on the surface of a thin sheet that is adherable to a human fingernail surface or the nail surface of an artificial nail, instead of drawing such nail art picture, directly on a human fingernail surface, and the printed sheet is then cut to a 2-D shape fit to the nail surface.
However, there has been need for printing a nail art picture directly on a human fingernail surface or the nail surface of an artificial nail, instead of adhering a piece of sheet with a nail art picture printed thereon, to a human fingernail surface or the nail surface of an artificial nail.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus therefor that enable to print a nail art work, such as a desired nail art picture on one""s own fingernail surface by him/herself. These method and apparatus are also applicable to the nail surface of an artificial nail, as they are.
To attain the object, a method according to the present invention is provided comprising the steps of holding at least one nail surface on a finger holder; selecting one ore more printing patterns from printing patterns stored in control means; moving either one or both of printing means and the finger holder by means of moving means controlled by the control means; and, concurrently, printing the selected printing pattern on the one or more nail surfaces.
To apply this method, an apparatus according to the present invention is provided comprising control means, a finger holder, printing means under the control of the control means for printing a nail art picture on a nail surface held by the finger holder, and moving means under the control of the control means for moving either one or both of the printing means and the finger holder. The nail surface, which a printing pattern is printed on, is a human fingernail surface or the nail surface of an artificial nail.
As the control means, a computer may be used equipped with a CPU, an internal memory, interfaces, an external memory, and a keyboard. As the printing means, a nozzle unit of an ink jet printer may be used. The control means moves the finger holder and the nozzle unit relative to each other so that a selected printing pattern is printed on the nail surface. The nozzle unit moving mechanism of an ink jet printer may be used as a part of the moving means.
The nozzle unit may employ the nozzle unit of a color ink jet printer, equipped with four or more ink jet nozzles, of colors including the three primary colors and black, as it is. The nozzle unit jets color ink from the ink jet nozzles under the control of the computer.
It may be arranged that the control means stores various nail art pictures beforehand, the stored nail art pictures are printed on a sheet of paper beforehand, from which a desired nail art picture is enabled to select by key operations.
When the moving means moves the nozzle unit only, the finger holder holds the nail surface which the nail art work is applied to, in a predetermined position. The moving means, controlled based on a program stored in the control means, moves the nozzle unit from a starting position to a terminating position along a predetermined moving route. The control means jets color ink from the ink jet nozzles in a position on the moving route where the nail art picture is printed, based on a program, for printing the nail art picture, stored in the control means.
The control means may be connected to display means to display printing patterns on the screen of the display for selecting a printing pattern from the displayed printing patterns.
The control means may be connected to data input means, such as a video movie camera, an image scanner, and a digital still camera. Thereby, data, such as printing patterns, printing masks for limiting the printing areas of the printing patterns, and a nail surface image, may be inputted to the control means, where such data may be displayed on the screen of the display means, and edited separately or in combination, for the edited data to be selected and stored for printing.
Preferably, the control means may have the capability to extract only the nail contour from the nail image, and thereby form, edit, and store printing masks with either the inside or outside of the nail contour selectively defined as either printing or trimming areas of the printing masks; the capability to combine a plurality of printing masks; the capability to select, edit and store printing masks while referring, on the screen, the nail image to at least one printing mask stored beforehand; the capability to display, edit, on the screen, and store combined images formed by combining printing patterns onto printing masks; the capability to select, on the screen, printing patterns to be printed; the capability to display, edit, on the screen, and store combined images formed by combining printing patterns with other printing patterns; and the capability to edit and store images picked up by the data input means, as printing patterns.
Furthermore, the control means, image pickup means, display means, and printing means may be enabled to deal with a plurality of nail surface simultaneously. The control means may be equipped with a data correcting function for printing the printing patterns on a plurality of nail surfaces.
The ink jet printer or jetting means, such as a spray, other than the ink jet printer may be preferably arranged to jet either one or both of a preprinting processing solution for forming a layer allowing ink dispersion, on the nail surface, and a postprinting processing solution for forming a layer protecting the print, on the nail surface.
As described above, by applying the nail art method of the present invention by means of the nail art apparatus of the present invention, an excellent effect is exhibited that a user is enabled to print a desired nail art picture on his/her own fingernail surface or the nail surface of an artificial nail, by him/her-self.
The apparatus of the present invention equipped with image pickup means, display means, control means, and printing means, exhibits an excellent effect that a user is enabled to input, form, edit, and store, on the spot, an object to be drawn on the nail surface, such as a picture, and print the object, such as a picture, on his/her nail surface, accurately.